Lionel Hampton: King David Suite in Munich

This gem of a concert, from the 1994 Munich Summer Piano Festival, marks a rare glimpse into the later years of a true jazz icon. Lionel Hampton's bands were famous for both popularizing and progressing the jazz tradition in the 40s and 50s, as well as acting as incubators for some of America's greatest talents: Quincy Jones, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie. Though his style of big band music fell out of the mainstream in the 60s, he continued to perform until suffering an on-stage stroke in 1991, which limited Hampton's concert-playing days. He rarely performed in his final decade, so this show feels like a send-off of sorts.